Topographic Map

This article explains how to get the best out of the topographic map

Fabio Mangia avatar
Written by Fabio Mangia
Updated over a week ago

What is a topographic map?

It is a type of map that presents detailed representation of the relief, showing the contours of the terrain. Combined with other tools, it can assist enormously in agricultural planning in regions that have more rugged relief.

How to access the topographic map available from Agrosmart?

Just navigate to the right corner of the main map and choose from the three options available.

Note: Sometimes images are not loaded correctly and you will see a grey square. Please zoom in and out to fix this.

How to interpret the topographic map?

The main information visible on the topographic map are terrain contours. See the image below

Each line represents an altitude in meters. Let's see the image above in detail:

This allow you to identify how steep the terrain is, you can plan and define actions without even having to go to the field!

In some situations, such as in a small, higher area, it is not possible to see the altitude of the contour line, but that's okay. Every image follows a pattern, as you can see in the previous image, each contour curve is 10 meters apart. This makes it easy to know what the value is. See the example below.

How accurate is this information?

This topographic map is generated based on data collected on a space mission called SRTM and is used by several organizations around the world. This map has topographic data from practically the whole world and has a resolution of 30 meters.

Did this answer your question?